Leslie City Council approves spending $212,000 for water, sewer system improvements

LESLIE -- The Leslie City Council on Tuesday approved paying Fitzgerald Henne & Associates Inc. of Lansing up to $212,030 for construction engineering contract costs for water and sewer system improvements.

The vote was 6-0. Councilman Randy Fox was absent from the meeting.

The expenditure is the next step in the city’s plans to build a new iron-removal plant and install water meters throughout the city. The cost of the entire project is estimated at $1.8 million, Leslie City Manager Brian Reed said.

“This is for coordinating the project, putting it out to bid, working with the contractors and (doing) daily inspections on their progress for both the iron-removal plant and the meter-installation project,” Reed said of this portion of the project.

This is the second large financial commitment by the city toward the water-system improvements. The council approved spending more than $160,000 last fall for preliminary engineering and design work with Fitzgerald Henne, as well as for meter-placement inspections of local homes.

The water meter work and the iron-removal plant construction are both expected to begin later this year, Reed said.

In other business, the council:

• Received an update from Reed on the search for a new director of Leslie's department of public works. He said of the 35 applicants, five were interviewed and an offer likely will be made to one of them in the next week. The candidates are four men and one woman, Reed said. Two are from Leslie Township; the others are from Springport, Mason and Howell. No internal candidates were interviewed.

• Agreed by consensus to proceed jointly with Leslie Township on a new area master plan. The city has not updated its master plan since 1993; the township’s most recent update was about five years ago.

• Unanimously approved non-motorized transportation improvements of more than $8,000 in order to comply with state of Michigan requirements. The city plans to use a portion of the funds toward updating its master plan, while other funds will be used to install new sidewalks in areas along N. Main and Race streets.

• Unanimously approved a request from the Leslie Youth Baseball Association to use the Washburn Street ball fields, contingent upon league officials keeping the fields relatively free of litter.